HELOC questions and/or advice

[Alice M.]

Hi All! I'm new here.

We bought our first house less than a year ago - it wasn't appraised high though. I'm guessing because of the condition that it was in. I'm now interested in buying small single family homes in the area as investment properties and renting them out and I was looking into getting a HELOC for this. Do I get another appraisal done since my home has most likely (I hope) gone up in value since we've fixed it up since moving in?

According to the appraised price the town is giving me for taxes I have about $40K in equity but I'm not sure I can go by those numbers or if they're even accurate.

Since I most likely cannot find a SF home for the amount of my HELOC (I live in Putnam county, NY) do some people take out another mortgage too or is this a terrible idea? What are the options for people with only SOME equity in their home but not enough to buy a house outright?